In a peer to peer wireless network, devices may broadcast information for the purposes of discovery. It is advantageous to enable the devices to discover as many peers as possible in a given amount of time. The number of discovered peers is typically limited by the range of the broadcast signals which is imposed by the transmission power constraints of the mobile devices. One approach for extending the range of peer discovery signals is for mobile devices to simply re-transmit a signal that they have previously received in order to enable other devices to decode the broadcast messages of peers that they cannot directly receive. While straightforward to implement, this method is not the most efficient in terms of maximizing the rate of peer discovery, e.g., maximizing the total number of discovered messages in the network.
In view of the above, there is a need for new methods and apparatus for relaying discovery information in a more efficient manner.